THE GENESEE FARMER. 



46 



SPIRIT OF THE AGRICITLTTmAL PRESS. 



Testimonial to John Johnston, of Geneva. — 

 We see by the New Torlc Tribune^ that a number 

 of gentlemen interested in the improvement of 

 agriculture, have clubbed together and presented a 

 massive silver pitcher and two goblets to the above 

 named gentleman. On one shield of the pitcher is 

 represented a harvest field, as it appears in our day, 

 on anotlier a mowing machine is seen at work, and 

 the third bears the following inscription : 



" Presented to John JouKston, in recognition of his Seryices to 

 the Agriculture of New York, by his fellow citizens." [Here 

 follow the names of the gentlemen.] 



The goblets bear representations of men laying 

 drain tiles, tile machines, and small draining tools 



Laegk Fapms. — The Country Gentleman justly 

 remarks: "The passion for more land is one which 

 works incalculable injury to American agriculture. 

 It crowds out of farming many who would other- 

 wise engage in it — many who, were small farms 

 more readily attainable, would do good service in 

 the culture of the soil, and in the elevation of the 

 cliaracter of our farming population. Let us be 

 less covetous of surface, and not forget that we 

 own the subsoil, and endeavor to make what we 

 have attain a greater productiveness ; and let us 

 ask for better crops, finer animals, more serviceable 

 iini)lements, rather than 'one field more.'" 



Osage Orange Hedges. — A correspondent of 

 the Prairie Farmer^ in a sensible article on this 

 subject, attributes the repeated failures with this 

 plant to the want of care in cultivation, rather 

 than to any want of adaptability of the plant to 

 the climate and soil of the West. It requires to be 

 planted in soil made mellow and well manured to 

 the depth of at least two feet, and to be as care- 

 fully plowed and hoed through the sumrrter as a 

 row of potatoes, for two or three years, until the 

 hedge is ready to turn out, when the ground should 

 be well seeded with timothy. The plants are to 

 be pruned three times a year : in spring, close to 

 the ground ; in June, four or five inches above the 

 ground; in September, six or eight inches above 

 the last cutting, and so on every year until the 

 hedge is high enough and strong enough to turn 

 cattle, after which it should be kept well trimmed. 



Laege Fleeces of Wool. — A California paper 

 gives an account of two fleeces shown at the State 

 Fair at Sacramento, Cal. The fleece of the buck 

 Grizzly, owned by Flint, Bixby & Co., weighed 

 4:2i lbs. It was of superior style and fineness, and 

 was esteemed the best fleece ever shown. The 

 fleece of the buck Samson, belonging to John 

 Skabl, was also shown. It weighed 32i lbs. 



Singed BacOn.— The Chicago Tribune says Mr. 

 TnoMAS Nash, of that city, has adopted the Hamp- 

 shire plan of singeing his hogs after slaughtering, 

 instead of the usual mode of scalding them. After 

 killing, the carcasses are covered with straw, which 

 is then burned upon them. They are then turned, 

 and the process repeated on the other side, leaving 

 the carcases quite blackened. This dark coat is 

 scaled off with a scraper, and the hog is found to 

 be perfectly cleaned of bristles. It is then dressed, 

 cut in half, head and legs cut off, blade and back- 

 bone cut out, the whole neatly trimmed with a 

 knife, and the sides then laid in tiers, skin side 

 downward, the meat surface plentifully strewfi with 

 salt to pickle it, and in about two weeks the 

 process is completed, and the singed lacon ready 

 for shipment in boxes to London, where it is 

 preferred to any other. 



Fertility of Subsoils. — A correspondent of ti* 

 Country Gentleman relates an instance in his own 

 experience, where a portion of a rich alluvial 

 meadow had been covered to a depth of from six to 

 eighteen inches with a deposit of sand, washed down 

 from an adjoining bluff. This portion of the field 

 was considered ruined; yet he planted the whole 

 with corn. The field averaged sixty-two bushels 

 per acre, and that portion covered with sand yielded 

 one-fifth more corn than what grew on the rich 

 alluvial soil of the rest of the meadow. This same 

 spot continued to produce equal to the best of the 

 intervale for many years afterward. 



Farming in Missouri. — A correspondent of the 

 Country Gentleman^ writing from Buchanan Co., 

 Missouri, says : " I presume there is no section of 

 the country where the subject of introducing good 

 stock has been more neglected than in this, and 

 where the stock is uniformly so poor." Hemp and 

 corn seem to be the staple crops of that country, 

 and the former has generally proved profitable until 

 within the last year or two, when the market has 

 not been so good. The wheat crop, he says, is a 

 very uncertain one, under the system of cultivation 

 pursued there. 



Salted Water foe Sheep. — The New York 

 Tribune gives the following experiment : 100 sheep 

 were fed regularly 187 lbs. hay and 175 lbs. straw 

 per day. This was replaced by 110 lbs. of hay 

 and the same of cut straw, the sheep being watered 

 over night with 33 gallons of water, in which If 

 lbs. of sea salt had been dissolved. Notwithstand- 

 ing this reduction in the amount of their food, the 

 sheep remained in as good condition as they were 

 before. • 



